Advancing Fuel Cells Technology via Analogous Heat Exchanger Design Principles

该提案是为少数派研究规划拨款发起一项调查，以应用热交换器设计原则来改进燃料电池设计实践。要探讨的主题包括：发生电荷传输的电活性区域的分配，使用“阴极鳍”来减少电荷传输阻力，通过对燃料电池传输过程的现代第二定律分析进行热力学优化，以及将热经济学分析应用于具有成本效益的电池组设计。规划补助金应有助于指导私人投资在这一重要技术领域制定更广泛的研究建议。这项研究活动将与现有的教育推广计划相结合，该计划将有助于向代表人数较少的少数族裔学生推广科学和工程研究生教育。

The proposal is for a Minority Research Planning Grant to initiate an investigation to apply heat exchanger design principles to improve fuel cell design practices. Topics to be pursued include the allocation of electroactive area over which charge transport occurs, the use of "cathode fins" to reduce charge transfer resistance, thermodynamic optimization via a modern Second Law analysis of the fuel cell transport processes, and the application of thermoeconomics analysis for cost-effective cell stack design. The planning grant should serve to guide the PI in the development of more extensive research proposals in this technically important area. The research activity will be coupled to an existing educational outreach program that will help to promote science and engineering graduate education to underrepresented minority students.